Education: NA
Ecole des Mines Paris, Master of Science
Onetime bureaucrat, rose to special adviser to France's industry minister. In 1980s moved into private sector where he turned around Italy's near bankrupt steel company Carlo Tassara. Started investing in French and Italian steel and energy companies in 1995. Played critical role in the massive steel merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel in 2006: steadily upped his stake in Arcelor and threw his support behind Lakshmi Mittal, who beat out Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov's Severstal for the right to buy Arcelor. "My influence is important", Zaleski tells Forbes.